After repeated calls, texts and letters, the Forest Service sent the ranchers a “notice of noncompliance,” according to documents obtained via public records requests. The agency asserted that the ...

Federal law requires agencies to review the environmental impacts of grazing, but government employees allege the system is riddled with loopholes.

The FREE RANGE stories are part of High Country News’ Conservation Beyond Boundaries project, which is supported by the BAND Foundation. Additional financial support was provided by the Fund for ...

Nearly 40 years after an armed sheriff, anti-LGBTQ activists and a judge’s order shut down the Gay Rodeo Finals, this year ...

The decline isn’t just in Northern California: Across the West, porcupines are vanishing. Wildlife scientists are racing to ...

In early November, Texas-based New Era Energy & Digital announced plans to build a “hyperscale,” meaning massive, AI-processing data center complex in Lea County, New Mexico, the epicenter of the ...

Our September 2025 issue, “Food and Power in the West,” was a collaboration between HCN and the Food & Environment Reporting Network (FERN). In this special issue, we worked to untangle the web of ...

Laureli Ivanoff’s article “ Working together is everything ” (September 2025) is a beautiful story. I’m ready to book a trip to Eaton Island. I so hope climate change hasn’t reworked the environment ...

HCN contributors won top honors for longform magazine writing — one for a piece about a new DNA technique that could bring closure for families of missing and murdered Indigenous people, and the other ...

High Country News relies on donations as well as subscription fees to produce independent reporting on the West. Help continue the legacy of reader-supported journalism by making a tax-deductible ...

Valencia Robin is the author of Lost Cities and Ridiculous Light which won Persea Books’ first book prize. A recipient of a National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship, she teaches at East Tennessee ...

High Country News relies on donations as well as subscription fees to produce independent reporting on the West. Help continue the legacy of reader-supported journalism by making a tax-deductible ...